This was the response I got, regarding the question of if context is taken into consideration on RP realms for reports:
Thank you for contacting us about this question and concern. When it comes to RP servers, we have special rules when it comes stuff done on RP realms and we do understand that players may say or do stuff in the game on RP realms that are separate from the character and that is just the nature of the character you are RPing as however, the rules we have are no different than any other realm and this is so we arenât showing any kind of special treatment to those who play on the RP realms becuase if we did that, then many others may move to the RP realms and do stuff and then try to justify that their actions was done because that is within their characters nature or how they wish to RP their character.
These special rules I mention are mostly with character names since we want these RP realms to be dedicated to those who wish to RP on those realms so we wouldnât want someone to make a character named Bobthebuilder on there because that isnât a RP name, but like using a character name like my GM name Denvorer, that would be more acceptable to be used on those RP realms.
Making comments in chat for example that could be considered toxic, inappropriate, or offensive in public channels regardless of you are saying it in character during your RP, others in the area or channel may not like seeing it so they can report that to us and we will review and take the appropriate action needed.
As someone who does RP on these realms, itâs best if you are going to be doing any kind RP that may involve comments that could involve being toxic, inappropriate, or offensive that you leave that to private chat, but make the person you are RPing with aware that your RP chat might contain stuff that could be normally reported being said in public channels.
Even if you are reported for what is said in private messages and it involves it being done for RP purposes, we do still investigate this to make sure the appropriate action is taken and that also include no actions.
There has been no change in the rules. There has been no change in the enforcement of the rules. If someone reported someone on any server for calling a Forsaken character a âdeaderâ I reaaaaaaallly have a hard time believing that that would be considered harassment or derogatory even by non-RP terms.
I feel like thatâs an overreaction. Nothing has changed. If someone decided to report an IC fight where bad language (actual profanity, not just âknife earsâ or âscaliesâ) was flying in /say and emotes before, people always risked getting an account action. Weâve all, always been conducting out-loud public RP on the shared assumption that everyone was just going to be cool about IC interactions in public, and for the most part it has worked out.
That shouldnât be different now, unless people are deputizing themselves to report and cleanse public RP of all bad language. If they are, I imagine people would eventually figure out who was doing it and they might find their RP opportunities limited, since weâre a small community and people wouldnât want to interact with people who subject them to that level of scrutiny. And even then, if people are being reported for an IC fight with no actual profanity or RL derotagory terms I find it hard to believe that the GMs would action that, either.
10th post down from the OP, First sentence. Iâm quite aware of this fact.
This is where I disagree. 9.2.5 introduced new Report Players options.
I donât believe itâs a coincidence that we get both a revision of Social Contract/ToS and new Report Options in the same patch. Blizzard is very much choosing to take a more active role in rule enforcement as opposed to their old methods of passivity.
The only semantic to be argued is if the GM replying is a User-Reply or an Automatic-Reply.
At best, the argument could be made that this new enforcement of old rules is to address how toxic the PvP community has become. This does NOT change the fact that in this thread alone two players have applied for tickets and the shared/posted Blue Post reply was âWe donât play favorites, these rules indiscriminately apply to everyoneâ
No, I donât feel like itâs an overreaction at all.
As I previously detailed in this post, Blizzard is now choosing to take more overt participation in the rule enforcement of the Warcraft community - which also includes Roleplayers who get in-character to fulfill a role in a story.
Someone has another thread on WrA that also addresses the same topic (An Eye on Wyrmrest Accord Behavior), One user made it clear that in the past they report anyone using slurs in-character. That is their right to do so if they feel wronged, I donât know the outcomes of such blanketed reporting. I bring up this fact as evidence that there exist players who are quick-draws to reporting slights done in RP, as you say âSelf Deputizedâ How players respond to such deputys is their own personal choice, but such reactions come too little, too late if the damage is already done with account suspensions or bans and that under the new rules we may see some faces vanish.
Antagonist characters are the easiest example of how the new Social Contract affects roleplayers because Antagonists talk smack to get under the skin of people prompting a controlled drama series of events that culminated in a fun story between characters & guilds. âDeadersâ & âScaliesâ are just me being Forum-Friendly, Iâm sure you or anyone can use personal experience in how youâve observed language weaponized in RP.
They changed the reporting UI somewhat, and added in some categories that were always reportable, but didnât have a good drop-down, previously. It didnât change what you could be reported for. Like there wasnât a good category for terrain or toy harassment before, but people could still be reported for it and the Blues would say to just use âCheatingâ as a catch all category, and theyâd sort it from there.
Now thereâs a Report Player > Gameplay Sabotage, but that doesnât mean that itâs suddenly just now a reportable behavior. You always could report for it, you just had to use another category or put in a web ticket.
Do we know that thatâs happening? Actions still depend on reports. Thereâs one person on this forum who said they caught a warning for stuff they were saying IC before the Social Contract launched but didnât specify what it was exactly that they said. Someone on the WRA forum said that they got some kind of action that they overturned on appeal.
If people report stuff, and what was said goes against the TOS, they could catch an action now like they could before. Itâs worth a mention, though, that there are still lines, just because itâs IC doesnât mean that everyone goes, âOkay, theyâre a villain, itâs fine!â In-character antagonists really shouldnât be using slurs and insults that arenât a factor in the game. I can see people getting reported for that. You donât build a good villain character on the basis of going around calling people things that arenât even biases in the Warcraft world, and I canât see people getting actions if what theyâre getting reported for is slurs that only exist in the fantasy world, much less just for being an antagonist in general.
But, weâll see. Iâve been a little more creative in the ways that my salty characters express themselves in crowded areas lately out of an abundance of caution as people work out what the Social Contract does and doesnât mean, but I wouldnât say itâs been a detriment to how I portray the characters. I wouldnât say itâs any different than before, aside from the fact that more people have the reporting options on their mind. So far, I havenât really heard floods of stories from people where they were actioned for IC /say and /emotes either
Do we have absolute primary sourced evidence of this? No. Nothing beyond rumors, 2nd hand, and even 3rd hand stories of exaggerated events from other users being the victim of such events.
Taking such stories at face value, It happened ergo Blizzard is doing it.
Applying a healthy dose of speculation, these stories could just as easily be the users truly paying the consequences of their own toxic behavior.
My own thought process comes from Causality: Blizzard is not revisioning the ToS & Report Player features for no reason at all. They have XYZ motivation for taking more proactive measures for their community.
My own speculation is that itâs something to do with the Microsoft buyout, Microsoftâs Code of Conduct âsupposedlyâ is quite strict about language, though I myself have long since given up console games so I have no experience beyond a casual google search for understanding if/how Microsoft enforces such Community Standards.
So basically donât roleplay a goblinâs feelings about gnomes accurately.
Cool. Real cool.
We are all so much better off for this, now that the pan-fantasy vampire elves and worgen werewolf mains from London canât be offended by gnomes and goblins engaging in that dirty, no good, very bad lore-friendly rivalry.
What theyâre essentially saying is that they canât control what people report publicly, and anything reported publically will be subject to the same moderation system as anything else.
Which is a tough blow to hear as roleplayers, but objectively fair because otherwise anyone could say anything under the guise of âroleplayingâ.
My only suggestions on how to help side-step this problem? Put a discalimer in your profile, avoid big displays of public anger/insulting that might draw a lot of attention and step up your OOC communication game.
GMs have always had a policy of âdonât tell, donât askâ when it comes to RP servers. I canât see that changing anytime soon, itâs really only in response to reports.
We are gonna need to make Moonguard squeaky clean. I need to shred some of my grimdark writing work, I would ask Blizzard for a spar shredder, but they said something broke their shredder. Oh well.
